Many Stars Rested For Match Against Kuwait

Newcastle Herald

Friday September 1, 2006

GR

SOCCEROOS interim coach Graham Arnold will rest Australia's "fatigued" English Premier League stars from next week's Kuwait match in the hope of having all of the country's best footballers available for home internationals in October.

Arnold has also revealed four of Australia's World Cup stars have retired from international football, but skipper Mark Viduka was not among the group.

Arnold yesterday named an 18-member squad for next Wednesday's Asian Cup qualifier in Kuwait City, including nine World Cup players in an all-overseas based line-up.

World Cup players John Aloisi, Scott Chipperfield, Jason Culina, Mile Sterjovski, Luke Wilkshire and goalkeeper Mark Schwarzer were all named, as well as Germany 2006 squad members Michael Beauchamp, Ante Covic and Josip Skoko who is likely to captain the side.

Notable omissions included big-name English-based stars Viduka, Tim Cahill and Lucas Neill, as well as Italian Serie A players Vince Grella and Marco Bresciano.

Arnold said he avoided selecting players from the top English and Italian leagues because Australia have already qualified for the 2007 Asian Cup and have internationals against Paraguay (in Brisbane) and Bahrain (in Sydney) in October.

"I spoke to all of the Premier League guys and they are feeling fatigued," Arnold said.

"A lot of those players are in the situation that I felt you can't call on them all the time.

"Serie A players start the weekend after Kuwait, so I didn't want to jeopardise their starting positions.

"I really hope by the Paraguay and Bahrain games, we will have 15, maybe 20 of our best players back.

"They're players I believe will possibly go through to the 2010 World Cup."

Arnold said four players had already told him their intentions to quit international football.

"I won't disclose [who they are] because they want to do it in their own time, but there is about four at the moment and two to three are still uming and ahing," said Arnold.

Socceroos: John Aloisi (Alaves, Spain), Michael Beauchamp (Nurnberg, Germany), Jacob Burns (Wisla Krakow, Poland), Scott Chipperfield (Basel, Switzerland), Ante Covic (Hammarby, Sweden), Jason Culina (PSV Eindhoven, Holland), Ahmad Elrich (Fulham, England), Ryan Griffiths (Rapid Bucuresti, Romania), Brett Holman (Nijmegen, Holland), Patrick Kisnorbo (Leicester City, England), Scott McDonald (Motherwell, Scotland), Jonathan McKain (Politechnica, Romania), Ljubo Milicevic (BSC Young Boys, Switzerland), Mark Schwarzer (Middlesbrough, England), Josip Skoko (Wigan, England), Mile Sterjovski (Basel, Switzerland), Nick Ward (QPR, England), Luke Wilkshire (FC Twente, Holland).

© 2006 Newcastle Herald

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